Foundation trailer

WezV · October 2021

Tannin said:

fields5069 said:

It makes more sense to start with Foundation, yes agreed. I should go back and read these. I was mightily impressed when I was a teen but it would be interesting to see what I think of the style now.

Best not to. They have not stood up well. Asimov, despite his massive reputation for a while, was never much of a fiction writer. His works mostly read more like children's books: very simple and clear, lacking characterisation, imagination and flavour. This is an opportunity for a very rare thing indeed: a film of a famous book which is actually better than the original. In fact you can pretty much back that in.

His non-fiction, on the other hand, is superb. Asimov's straight-to-the-point style and his gift for simplicity and clarity made him one of the very very best science educators. His non-fiction is still worth reading today, though of course you have to make appropriate allowances for subjects which have changed a lot since they were written.

I think he's a great fiction writer. He doesn't lack imagination, but most of his original ideas have been redone multiple times now so hardly seem original.

His writing style is basic, he admitted this himself. There is no flowery language or clever literary tricks. He just tells a story, and the stories are usually pretty good. Sometimes this is all I want from a book.

I think the stuff he wrote in the late 80's has dated much worse than the stuff he wrote in the 50's.

axisus · October 2021

I REALLY want to see this. I'm much more into slow paced, intelligent sci fi than guns and action. No plans to get Apple TV though .....

thumpingrug · March 2022

Ive just started to watch this. 2 episodes in. Read the books 40 years ago and found them to be exceptional at the time. I am however struggling with the TV show. Its much slower than the book and the empire politics seem to be laboured. Ill stick with it, probably 3 episodes a week but more out of nostalgia then anything as so far im not feeling it

TimmyO · March 2022

thumpingrug said:

Ive just started to watch this. 2 episodes in. Read the books 40 years ago and found them to be exceptional at the time. I am however struggling with the TV show. Its much slower than the book and the empire politics seem to be laboured. Ill stick with it, probably 3 episodes a week but more out of nostalgia then anything as so far im not feeling it

I think if you can get ok with the fact that it invents loads of stuff (and spends time on that) to bolt on to the core book story, then it’s really really good.

At first I didn’t get why they felt the need to do that, but then I dipped back into the first book (about 35 years on from reading it) and realised that the book is, shall we say, sparse - a modern series would seem odd with nothing more than the core book plot in it I think - it would be like talking about recent history at the pace/detail of: “… and then the country decided to leave the EU, and then there was this big disease and lots of people all around the world got it, and then a war started…”

I actually ended up finding a lot of the made up parts the most enjoyable - but I get that a hardcore Asimov fan who’d read the books much more recently might find it jarring

Headphones · March 2022

Most of the extra bits are from the sequels/prequels that Asimov wrote decades after the origninal trilogy (itself a conglomeration of short stories, rathe than three novels).

TimmyO · March 2022

Headphones said:

Most of the extra bits are from the sequels/prequels that Asimov wrote decades after the origninal trilogy (itself a conglomeration of short stories, rathe than three novels).

oh I didn't know that - I only read one and a half of them a very long time ago!

thumpingrug · March 2022

Having read the entire series and the subsequent prequels, as well as everything Asimov wrote I can already see who they have taken elements of various books to create the series. It would not have made sense without some of the context but clearly not a faithful reproduction.

Tannin · March 2022

^ And just as well. Modern audiences expect a bit more flesh on the bones of a story. Yes, even on screen.

(Usually, screen adaptations leave 80% of the book out, partly stuff that doesn't work well in a visual medium but mostly just because books generally have far more in them than can possibly be squeezed into a film production. The curious thing here is that the producers feel constrained to put lots of extra stuff in just to make it work.)

Axe_meister · March 2022

I read the foundation book about 30 years ago. Normally I remember a plot fairly well. However Season 1 did not ring any bells whatsoever.
I remember the books feeling very very slow but otherwise nothing.
Enjoyed the TV adaptation however.

guitargeek62 · March 2022

I've just rewated Ep1 for the third time... something clicked more on this attempt, so I'll crack on and try the rest of the series now.

I love the books, and the rest of Asimov's works, but my first couple of attempts with the show left me feeling completely disinterested. I'm not sure what changed this morning though!

Grumpyrocker · March 2022

My favourite stuff from the series wasn't even written by Asimov. Being a fan of the writer led me to the show, but I really like the stuff they created for the series that wasn't in the books. The genetic dynasty - and particularly Lee Pace's performance - is one of my favourite things on recent TV.

TimmyO · March 2022

Grumpyrocker said:

My favourite stuff from the series wasn't even written by Asimov. Being a fan of the writer led me to the show, but I really like the stuff they created for the series that wasn't in the books. The genetic dynasty - and particularly Lee Pace's performance - is one of my favourite things on recent TV.

Yep I can relate to that

TimmyO · September 2023

This season has been fantastic

Headphones · September 2023

While I'm really enjoying it as a good Sci Fi show, I'm rather struggling with the "Foundation" title.

It's quite a loose interpretation of some of the themes, rather than the stories.

I wonder if a different title might have been helpful, such as "Empire" or "the Foundation's Empire" say, just to clarify the distance from the source material?

drofluf · September 2023

Headphones said:

While I'm really enjoying it as a good Sci Fi show, I'm rather struggling with the "Foundation" title.

It's quite a loose interpretation of some of the themes, rather than the stories.

I wonder if a different title might have been helpful, such as "Empire" or "the Foundation's Empire" say, just to clarify the distance from the source material?

I agree; I’ve enjoyed the show but keep getting distracted by trying to work out how it fits in with my memory of the books.

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Foundation trailer

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